Congratulations to the Center for Nursing Philosophy’s newest Fellows! This is the fourth year the CNP put forth applications for fellows and related to the great strength and number of applications, we are proud to announce THREE fellows this year, Rebecca Shasanmi Ellis, Jonathan Bayuo and Jamie Smith.

Rebecca Shasanmi Ellis, PhD, MPH, RN

Undergraduate & Masters Entry Programs, School of Nursing, Assistant Professor, Georgetown University

Rebecca O. Shasanmi Ellis is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University School of Nursing. Her research focuses on the intersection of health workforce development, mental health, and structural determinants of health. Dr. Ellis is currently chair-elect of the Public Health Nursing (PHN) Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Before her transition to Georgetown, she was an instructor at Emory University since 2018; and provided care as a registered nurse at SisterLove, Inc. (first Black women’s HIV org in the south) and Our House Health (formerly CAPN Clinics; free clinics in homeless shelters) in mental health and women’s health in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Ellis received her PhD and MS in Nursing from Emory University; a Master of Public Health in 2009 from Morehouse School of Medicine; and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from George Washington University (2013), where she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Careers in Nursing Scholar. She has notably worked for the World Health Organization during the Ebola response in Nigeria. In August 2022 she received the Top PhD Student Abstract Prize from the International Philosophy of Nursing Society for an ongoing study of bioethics phenomena – moral distress in nurses into a theoretical framework for structural racism and moral distress. This framework was featured as a Knowledge Session at the Nursology.com – Virtual Nursing Theory Week Conference in March 2023. Her research on the moral distress and mental health experiences of healthcare workers who worked during COVID-19 response, and the relationship to structural racism (proxy, chronic workplace discrimination) brings forward how healthcare must respond to a broader array of structural constraints to health worker well-being and patient outcomes. Her project will focus on critical humanism in terms of African indigenous philosophy, Ubuntu, power, structural racism, and nursing ways of knowing.

Jonathan Bayuo PhD, RN, MACN, FFNMRCSI

Research Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Adjunct Scholar, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana

Jonathan Bayuo is a Clinical Fellow (Burns & Plastics) and Research Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Adjunct Scholar, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana. Jonathan (he/him/his) identifies as African (precisely, Ghanaian). He holds a BSc degree in Nursing (Presbyterian University – Ghana), MPhil Nursing (University of Ghana), MSc Gerontology (University of Southampton), MSc Burn Care (Queen Mary University of London), LL.B (University of London), PhD (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) and currently studying towards LLM Medical law and Ethics concurrently with professional legal training. Jonathan has extensive clinical experience across the continuum of burns management ranging from burn critical care to aftercare and he remains very active in terms of research, teaching, and clinical practice. His research interests span across burn care, models of care, wound management, ageing in place, palliative care in traditionally non-palliative care settings such as the critical care units, medical/ nursing jurisprudence/ philosophy, and qualitative methodologies. Within this fellowship, Jonathan will undertake a philosophical analysis examining the status and contribution of African philosophy to theory and knowledge development in nursing and midwifery. His project will focus on exploring the status and contributions of African philosophy to knowledge and theory development in nursing and midwifery.

 

Jamie B. Smith, RN, PhD, BSc, MA, MSc, PgDip

Nurse, lecturer, and researcher. Research Associate, Department of Gender in Medicine, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Jamie B. Smith is a nurse, lecturer, and researcher based between Sheffield and Berlin. He completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh, where his dissertation, titled “Ecologies of Care: Towards a Posthuman Institutional Ethnography of Nursing,” explored the intersections of nursing, institutional power, and critical posthuman theory. Currently, Jamie is a research associate at the Department of Gender in Medicine at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. In addition to his academic role, he practices clinically as a nurse specializing in renal and transplant care. Jamie’s research integrates critical posthuman theory with a mixed-methods approach, including quantitative, qualitative, and post-qualitative methodologies. His work focuses on how people, places, and institutional structures shape intimate relations and the practices of care. His project will focus on a Spinozan approach to speculative ethics in nursing.

About the Center for Nursing Philosophy

The Center for Nursing Philosophy Fellowship program supports promising nursing PhD students or interested nursing faculty to pursue targeted scholarship in nursing philosophy. The fellowship is a 1-quarter (10 week) commitment for intensive mentored scholarship in the Center for Nursing Philosophy (either virtually or in person depending on context), followed by 2 additional 10-week quarters of virtual mentorship to support scholarship completion. The expectation is that the end of the Fellowship corresponds with submission of the completed scholarship as a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.